Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) is a project that collates data on political violence in developing states, from 1997 to the present. As of early 2015, ACLED has recorded over 90,000 individual events, with ongoing data collection focused on Africa. Data on South and South-East Asia are also available.

ACLED is directed by Prof. Clionadh Raleigh and operated by senior research manager Caitriona Dowd, both affiliated with the University of Sussex, while data collection involves several researchers. The dataset was introduced by Raleigh and co-authors in a 2010 paper in the Journal of Peace Research. ACLED was originally hosted by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (but was, even at the time, distinct from the UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict dataset) but later moved to an independent home. ACLED is now registered as an independent, non-governmental organization in the United States.

ACLED data contain information on the specific dates and locations of conflict events, the types of events, the groups involved, reported fatalities and changes in territorial control. ACLED covers political violence in all African countries starting from 1997 to the present, and South and South-East Asia in real-time. Data for non-African states are also available for the period 1997-2010, with the exception of Pakistan and Afghanistan, for which "beta" data collections are available for 2006-2009. Data collection involves a variety of sources including reports from developing countries and local media, humanitarian agencies, and research publications. A full account of definitions, practices, source materials and coding procedures are available in the Methodology section on ACLED website.

Data are updated in real-time and can be downloaded from the website. ACLED provides a codebook intended for users of the dataset and additional maps, trend charts and infographics that can be consulted in the Visuals section of the website. Real-time analysis of political violence can be also found on ACLED Crisis Blog. ACLED data are also available under the "Climate Change and African Political Stability" section of the website of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin.

...
Wikipedia